MICHAEL O'Loughlin will be hoping that about 8pm on Saturday, and for the rest of the night, there will be an eerie silence around the MCG.

The man they call Magic doesn't have any tricks to turn off the volume on 90,000 screaming Collingwood fans but he is hoping that his and his teammates' first-quarter exploits will help lower the boom on the "most vocal crowd in Australia".

While the Swans have played at the MCG in September before and will have a pocket of support from travelling fans and their Melbourne supporters on Saturday night, they will have not played a final like this before, with the venue likely to be a sea of boisterous black and white.

"When you play away from home you want to shut the crowd out pretty early," O'Loughlin said. "Collingwood fans are pretty vocal, probably the most vocal crowd in Australia, so it's something that you try to shut out pretty early, get a couple of goals, create scoreboard pressure and things like that."

O'Loughlin's teammate at the other end of the park, defender Craig Bolton concurred: "I think it's exciting more than anything. We know it's going to be a pro-Collingwood crowd, but playing at the MCG in front of a big crowd, it's what you want to play for, and it's good practice for the weeks ahead if you happen to make it through.

"We're looking forward to that and we know the crowd is going to be against us, but that's something to enjoy.

"We've played well in finals matches over the last few years and crowds have been against us for the majority of the time. You have to get up and create your own enthusiasm, because you're not going to get your own support from the outside, so it's a good challenge. It's just an extra element to the game."

The Swans have lost twice to Collingwood this season, both times comprehensively, not only on the scoreboard but in most facets of the game.

"We got beaten all over the park and the intensity was lacking," Bolton said. "We were beaten in midfield, defensively, up forward there was no pressure … so there were definitely a lot of areas for us to work on.

"Generally speaking, we've got to bring a greater will and more intensity than we've had in the last couple of contests. We had that on the weekend, it was evident in our tackling."

Bolton has welcomed the return of defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who came back into the first team last Sunday after an injury-frustrated season.

Coach Paul Roos has indicated Roberts-Thomson will be in the side again this week, and Bolton acknowledges that his presence gives the defence greater flexibility.

"Having an extra tall back there was really good for us on the weekend," he said. "It frees up myself or Leo [Barry] to play on a different sort of player.

"We have played our best footy over the last few years with LRT as part of the backline. I think everyone has been hopeful he would get back into the side, but it's been a process with his [foot] injury. But he's come through that and he's done really well, he's done everything asked of him and on the weekend he played some really good footy."